Words I put into sentences......

Hello All! 

Yeah, I still have a shit ton of bug bites :/. Those little mosquito type bugs that you don’t see, you just feel this awful little pain. Joe knows what I’m talking about. They suck! But I’m not as bad as my friend Anton. I pray you have enough bug spray my friend!! Stay strong! 

I haven’t written in a while. Been a little busy. Just a little. Last week one of my neighbor’s got married. I have to admit…..I was not excited haha. Thus far, my Moroccan wedding experience has been nothing but an awkward headache. Sitting there for hours, not understanding what is going on really and barely hanging on to what little Moroccan Arabic, “Darija” I know. The loud noises consisting of women banging on drums, singing, yelling and screaming etc. It’s such hard work to just pay attention. 

Although this doesn’t sound too positive right now, it gets better. So Day 1 (Thursday 9/23/2010), I go over for lunch and hangout a bit with the kids in my neighborhood. The blank stares are so frequent from people here, especially the women that you would expect to get a little used to it. But sometimes it still catches me off guard and I feel like I’m right back at day 1. I sit there trapped in my own mind, 23 years old with the language abilities of a 5 year old, if that. Hence the headache. But anywho, the food was delicious so that made up for some of it :) As always. 

Afterwards the family went to the next town over to have dinner with the bride’s family and then came back to party at the house. I went over at night and hung out with the kids again, playing “Snake” on my phone and talking about when we are gonna play cards again. I swear these kids are obsessed with playing cards haha. I got a phone call and walked away from the noise and walked up the hill. I’m pacing back and forth while on the phone and occasionally looking down at what’s happening at my neighbor’s house and I just have this overwhelming sense of happiness. Right then and there. I look around at the plateaus that surround us, the clear night sky and in the middle of the dark is a household glowing. Music, yelling and screaming, lights, smoke etc. It was so cool. I had a moment haha. 

Here I am, living the life. It’s a difficult life but as my friend Cara says, “Living the Dream”. She couldn’t be more right. I stood there on the phone, looking around me and thinking to myself, “Damn Socorra. You made the right choice. You’re doing all right”. It was great! All my fellow PCVs, I hope you have moments like the one I had :) 

Day 2 of the wedding I went with my neighbors to the next town over to party at the bride’s house. We drove in a caravan line, honking horns and making a riot around 10pm. We arrived, everyone started singing and I felt like my brain was on crack. This was the first time that I had experienced the “groom” side of things. The previous weddings I had been to were all on the bride’s side of the family. So this wedding was especially cool. 

Big roof top party. Thank God because with that many people, being inside would have been awful. So we have ventilation! Yay! I sit there, a bit awkward at first and not knowing exactly what to do. All the women are sitting down, so I sit down. The men are dancing and there was this particular boy who was getting a lot of attention for his Shakira-like dancing abilities. Very interesting. I commend him! 

After a coffee break, I finally get the nerve to dance. The thing is I LOVE dancing haha. I’m no way talented in it but I love doing it. My Merced crew would know this with our Partisan nights :) But Moroccan dances are unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I feel off-beat ALL the time. I look like a fool but it’s fun. After a while you just gotta let go. For some reason getting up the nerve to dance also gave me another sense of letting go. These people are my “family” while I’m here. These people are my friends. These people are my people! So hey let me look like a crazy fool, at least we all do together :) But no really, some of the people at the wedding were really good dancers. I was not one of them. 

By the time I knew it, it was 4am! Woah! I was so tired. My brain was on overload and I definitely needed to go to sleep. We all made our way back to Gafait and after parading up and down the street honking horns, I went to bed. What a night! 

*Yeah I started writing this a while ago, the end of September, but I got lazy, tired etc and never finished. So now these are just discontinuous thoughts strung together. Oh well :)* So what can I say, I really enjoyed myself at the wedding. I met some new people from my site and basically just hung out. It was overall better than I expected. But I definitely do not want to go to another one for a while…… Well I guess that’s all for now. Haha all of a sudden this post seems outdated but still important enough to share with everyone. Okay I’m out! Peace